The Denver school district will cut short the school day on April 27 after the local teachers union announced its members would join an afternoon rally at the Colorado Capitol to advocate for more state education funding.
District-run schools will have an “early-release” day with students being dismissed sometime between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., Denver Public Schools spokeswoman Jessie Smiley said. Exact dismissal times will depend on a school’s transportation schedule, she said.
Innovation schools, which are district-run schools with additional autonomy, can opt out of the early dismissal and operate on a normal schedule, according to a letter from Superintendent Tom Boasberg that explains why the district is declaring an early-release day. Denver Public Schools is the largest school district in the state, with 92,600 students.
Several charter schools also plan to dismiss students early so teachers can participate in the rally. They include schools in the district’s two biggest homegrown charter networks, DSST and STRIVE Prep, according to officials from those networks.
Other Colorado school districts have canceled school for a whole day. Colorado has among the lowest level of school funding in the country, and a recent study ranked the state last for the competitiveness of its teacher salaries.
Read Boasberg’s letter in full below.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
